Tracking a lifestyle of travel and adventure

May 08, 2011

I Have Never

This week while I was in Toronto I had an idea which I think I like. I get to live quite an adventurous life and I really don't document it well enough. One of my favorite party games is "I Have Never". There are various iterations and versions of this game but the basics are that you have to think of something you have never done and share it with the group. If someone has done it then they swap places with you in the centre of the room and tell the story. There have been many bust-a-gut evenings playing this with friends over a few drinks.

The biggest issue I have had playing this game of late however is that there seem to be few things that I have never done. So I have now set myself a challenge to start blogging these and sharing stories about new "Firsts" as they surface. These will come in a random order and will all be tagged under the category of "I Have Never".

Last weekend I did my first triathlon. It was a Half-Iron distance in the Napa region. That means it began with a 1.2 mile swim in open water, followed by a 56 mile bike ride, and finishes with a half-marathon. I have avoided something like this forever as I genuinely don't enjoy swimming. I have been determined to overcome that fear however to open up a whole new world of possibilities. I almost drowned on the swim with the big waves crashing over my head but when I got on the bike I came alive and ended up finishing with a half-decent time. It is something I am going to do again but I think I have a few other things I would like to do before signing up for the next one. One of my friends doctored the picture below to give it the IronMan Glare :-)

So my challenge to you who are reading is to lay out challenges that you think I should do. This list can be anything at all. It could be a prank, an adventure, something just insane...you set the category and if I have never done it I will add it to my list and report back. So what should I do next?

You can lay out challenges in the comments section or publicly challenge me on Twitter @markdowds

Amrita, thank you for sharing this. I am definitely adding this one to the list! it looks gorgeous and I would be in my element. I have never been in eastern canada either believe it or not...thank you very much. At some point I will come back with more questions..

wall," do not say, I will sleep, do not wake me. "" Oh, well, I do not read, hard is not in this for a while, you pull off the light I also sleep. "Jun said, walked back, also lying on the bed. Haha, had

Amrita, thank you for sharing this. I am definitely adding this one to the list! it looks gorgeous and I would be in my element. I have never been in eastern canada either believe it or not...thank you very much. At some point I will come back with more questions...

You've sufficiently distracted me from my morning emails with this post...I am a different kind of adventurer so this is right up my alley.

My suggestion is to hike the Long Range Mountains in Gros Morne, Newfoundland. I picked this one because it requires great mountaineering skills (you have to register with Parks Canada as every year at least one person has to be helicoptered out), the scenery is gorgeous, and it's a part of the world that is still under people's radar. Oh, and I also have a house there so I personally think it's a gem. More info here:

Thank you Sam.
In order:
I am not a mathematician and it doesn't seem like a fun challenge for me to do on my time off. I am hoping that the challenges people suggest are not just physical. I want to try things I have never done before as long as they are interesting. I did study mathematics and physics when younger and that is enough for me. I have studied David Bohm more recently and really enjoyed it but that is as deep as I want to get as I can apply his thinking to work stuff.
I can play golf and can hold my own. I used to be decent but am an average player now but still enjoy it. It is hard to play golf though as I get bored and would prefer to be running or biking or getting up to some mischief that makes me laugh :-)

Write a computer program or solve a mathematics/physics problem (learning the necessary skills to do so). No reason the challenges have to be of the body!

For example, on programming: understand and implement the binary search algorithm.

On mathematics/physics: learn what a "matrix" is and be able to change between basis (this is a branch called "linear algebra" and you should be able to read an intro text without having to remember anything from school).